About Me

I've written stories ever since I could write, but somewhere along the way I seem to have lost the joy and natural desire to write for me. Churning out stories every other week for my degree course, and forcing non-existent brilliance out of myself has drained my natural spirit. So, I have created myself a blog in an attempt to find a way back to what made me fall in love with writing in the first place. Only you and I will discover if I fail or succeed...

Tuesday, 14 February 2012

In Which I Network ... Finally

Lately I’ve decided to buck up and go to publishing networking events. I know everyone says it’s the best way to get in, but I was afraid of spending the whole evening standing like a lemon in the middle of the room alone. Now, I have a networking buddy I’m a little less daunted by the idea.[1] I’d been spending the past week readying myself for a career speed dating evening, BookMachine publishing event and alternative graduation party.[2] Then, last week I was sprung with an invitation at work experience.[3]

They sponsored Undiscovered Voices, a collection of novel beginnings written by unagented and unpublished authors and illustrators and published by the SCBWI.[4] And they had 92 agents and publishers coming along to celebrate the collection and snap up the authors. The room was jam packed with strangers’ faces, so I clung to my colleagues’ sides like a toddler about to enter the playground for the first time.

An hour in, one of them came up and asked who I’d been talking to, which was when I decided I had to up my game.[5] I strode to the food table and asked two colleagues to introduce me to the people to which they were talking. A surprise attack of the “what advice would you give someone trying to get in” and I’d been introduced to another individual who introduced me to another.[6]

An hour and a half and a couple e-mail address requests later I declared my first networking event a success! The authors had a pretty good go at it too, especially as two have already been signed by agents.